How is macOS Sierra running on older Macs?

[DanielDD]

I have a 2010 MacBook Air on its last legs. Wondering if installing macOS Sierra will make it worse or inject some fresh life into the old machine.

2010 MacBook Pro with SSD here. It's running fine, unless I want to watch Youtube videos at 720p or more (60 FPS). It hangs out a bit, but this behaviour was there in El Capitan as well

 

[cynics]

I feel it's similar to El Cap but a tad bit slower in places. Unlocking seems to hang before allowing me to type my password now.

 

[tromboneaholic]

Was suggested I try SMC reset to clear up issues. I'll try when I get home later and report back.

 

[Yaboze]

Running fine here, 2011 MBP, 16gb and SSD. Seems faster than El Cap to me.

 

[Henk Poley]

With Sierra, when I have quite a bit of tabs open in Safari, my MacBook 2010 becomes less responsive, even the mouse stutters. I think it's graphics related.

 

[Eithanius]

Mid-2010 MBP 15" with 8GB RAM and SSD, while it runs just as speedily as El Cap, the same can't be said for battery. It's far worse off than El Cap.

Running gfxCardStatus alone can trigger dGPU already.

 

[iRaynor SK]

MacBook Pro Retina 15.4-inch Late 2013 with 16 GB RAM and GT 750M. Sierra runs perfect, like all macOS's/OS X's that I was running on this Mac (since Mavericks to Sierra). But it's true that my machine is powerful, so maybe that's it :-D

 

[ivnj]

I upgraded my mac mini 2011 to 8gb ram. The 2gb it came with was just not enough. Will try installing later this tonight and see. I have 10.11.6. right now and it works fine. No SSD but still super fast.

 

[westislander]

Fresh installed Sierra on my MacBook air 2011 core i5 1.7GHz with 4GB of RAM and it's running as well as it did on El Capo

 

[tromboneaholic]

Fresh installed Sierra on my MacBook air 2011 core i5 1.7GHz with 4GB of RAM and it's running as well as it did on El Capo

Try running Arabesque screensaver. You"lol be disappointed.

 

[crewkid89]

Try running Arabesque screensaver. You"lol be disappointed.

Is the screensaver the only thing you care about? Why not just have the display turn off?

"Doctor it hurts when I hold my arm that way"
"So don't hold your arm that way!"

If you're having other issues that are impacting your use of the machine then that would be disappointing but who cares about a screensaver?

 

[rayward]

I'm getting daily (at least) freezes on my iMac (see sig. for specs). Very frustrating as it hosts my media library for my ATVs - not a day has passed that I have not had to go and force-shut-down and reboot my Mac since updating to Sierra.

 

[tromboneaholic]

Is the screensaver the only thing you care about? Why not just have the display turn off?

"Doctor it hurts when I hold my arm that way"
"So don't hold your arm that way!"

If you're having other issues that are impacting your use of the machine then that would be disappointing but who cares about a screensaver?

It is a barometer showing that performance is indeed impacted.

Think much?

 

[moderngamenewb]

I have a 2012 retina macbook pro, that shipped with Mountain Lion originally, and Sierra is running great on it surprisingly, and that's without doing a clean install. Other than a couple minor bugs when hooking it up to a monitor, it's running smoothly.

 

[Nothingfaced]

Runs very well on a late-2009 C2D 21.5 iMac.

I can't even believe it's still supported at all.

Siri even works well. I upgraded the RAM to 12GB in late 2014.

 

[RRmalvado]

2011 MacBook Air (4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD) - works much better than both Yosemite and El Capitan. Great update (clean installed)

 

[WigWag Workshop]

I have a mid-2010 i5 iMac with 8GB of RAM and a mechanical HDD, and honestly it is the best it has ran since SL. I did a clean install, and did a fresh install of all my apps.

 

[ltorrelles]

40% performance loss after upgrading from El Capitan to Sierra in my 2012 retina MacBook. Video rendering times have increased a nice 80%, while video and streaming on any browser makes the computer lag as hell. Massive performance peaks by "Google Chrome Helper", "kernel_task" (as usual), "WindowServer", and many others. It just seems like my processors get bottlenecked at 1GHz instead of the 2.7GHz.

Might do a clean install.

 

[GS Owner]

My iMac can't run Sierra, it's That Old.

But it runs Just Fine otherwise.

Considering how long my Apple GS ran - and very well, too - I'll probably replace my iMac when Apple switches to 128 bit CPU's

Oh, yeah: Did you read about the Commodore 64 that's still being used to run a business? http://sploid.gizmodo.com/this-old-ass-commodore-64-is-still-being-used-to-run-an-1787196319

 

[saudor]

Mid-2010 MBP 15" with 8GB RAM and SSD, while it runs just as speedily as El Cap, the same can't be said for battery. It's far worse off than El Cap.

Running gfxCardStatus alone can trigger dGPU already.

Try GFXcard status 4.2.1
https://github.com/steveschow/gfxCardStatus

Works fine for me

 

[langmurf]

Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15", 8GB RAM, 500GB 7200 HD. 10.12 seems to be running fine. All of my "everyday" apps run... fan may be on a tiny bit more than El Capitan. Time Machine working. So far, so good.

 

[esculapio1]

I have a late 2008 Macbook unibody with 8GB and SSD running smoothly on Sierra.
Still trying to get continuity and handoff with bluetooth dongle using CAT (continuity activation tool) but it makes boot hang. I am waiting for suggestions. I did not know about CAT when Ii was on Capitan or Yosemite.

 

[hwojtek]

2011 Air 4GB works without any hiccups.

 

[TallManNY]

Only had it for today, but it is working fine on my iMac 2011. I have 12 gb of RAM though.

 

[tgara]

I have a mid-2010 i5 iMac with 8GB of RAM and a mechanical HDD, and honestly it is the best it has ran since SL. I did a clean install, and did a fresh install of all my apps.

I have a very similar machine... 27 inch mid-2010 iMac with mechanical HDD running 12 GB RAM. I did a regular update, not a clean install (too much work tbh).

Sierra is working great so far, very stable. With El Cap, my machine was really slowing down, but Sierra seems to have speeded it up by about 30%. I am pleased with the performance and new features of the new OS.